People's Democracy

KERALA

 LDF Govt Creates New Posts of College Teachers

Thomas Joseph

CREATING a record in the history of higher education in the state of Kerala, the government has sanctioned 1599 new posts of teachers in the aided colleges in the state. These posts will be created in 148 aided colleges, clearing the entire backlog of vacancies accumulated over the years.  With the creation of new posts the government has fulfilled its promise to reverse the policy of converting aided colleges into unaided colleges, initiated by the previous United Democratic Front (UDF) government.  The   new posts would provide opportunities for subsidised higher education for an additional 50,000 students, most of who belong to marginalised sections of society.  The impact of the creation of new posts would be similar to starting 50 new colleges at one go.  The sanction of the posts in aided colleges would also further strengthen the system of public-private-partnership which has been developed in the state over the last 60 years.

The decision taken by the government is a sequel the process of de-linking pre-degree courses which was initiated almost 12 years ago.  The LDF government which was in office during 1996 – 2001 had initiated and completed the de-linking process.  This had rendered about 48 per cent teachers in the colleges excess.  With a view to utilising the services of the teachers thus rendered excess, about 400 new courses were started during 1998-2001 on condition that posts would be created only after accommodating all existing teachers.  The UDF government which ruled the state during 2001-06 refused to honor the commitment to create posts after accommodating existing teachers.  Instead, colleges were asked to appoint guest teachers to engage classes.  The colleges which had to pay the guest teachers from their coffers converted these aided courses into unaided courses arguing that they needed money to pay for guest lecturers.  As a matter of fact, the managements were acting hands in glove with the UDF.   It was part of a conspiracy hatched by the UDF government and private managements to convert aided colleges into unaided colleges over a period of time.  This became all the more clear when the UDF government gave sanction to start new unaided courses in aided colleges.   The government wanted to gradually reduce and eventually withdraw its investment in higher education.  The managements were all too willing to dance to the tunes of the UDF as it would give them an opportunity to run self financing courses in aided colleges, using infrastructure developed through public-private-partnership. 

The sanctioning of 1599 posts would cost the state exchequer Rs 60 crores annually. The government has decided to incur the expenditure in order to protect and strengthen the public funded system of education which has been the backbone of the state’s equitable development over the past 50 years.   With the creation of new posts, it would be possible for universities and colleges to further improve the course credit semester system introduced in all the universities in the state from the last academic year.